struck a
few chords; and then, as if driven by sudden impulse, wheeled quickly
round and said: "But the runaway husband shall have something pleasant
to remember the poor deserted wife by in his wanderings. Be sure,
Harold, and always think of me as singing this love-lorn ditty." Again
she laughed, but this time there was a peculiar tremor in her voice
which betrayed, better than anything else could have done, the great
effort she was making to sustain her pride. "Now listen:

"Oh! leave not your Kathleen, there's no one can cheer her,
Alone in this wide world unpitied she'll sigh;
And the scenes that were loveliest when thou wert near her
Will--"

"Grace! Grace!" His hands trembled with deep emotion, as he laid one
on her shoulder, and with the other hushed the words that cut him so
keenly.

As he had listened to her, and at last understood her overwhelming
love for their boy--and had realized, too, that it was indeed he who
was to blame for their estrangement--a look of deep surprise had
gradually overspread his face. Twice he had tried to interrupt her,
but in vain, until finally, almost convinced by her torrent of anger,
contempt and derision, that he had indeed lost all hold upon her
affections, he had sunk back bewildered in his chair, and covered his
face with his hands. But the mocking refrain of the song was more than
he could bear, and so he had sprung to his feet, gone to her side, and
putting his hand over her scornful lips had hushed the song.

As she wheeled defiantly round and looked up at him, he said
remorsefully, his face pale and haggard: "I see, at last, Grace; I
have been very blind and narrow; it is I, and only I, who am to blame
for this estrangement. Had I only understood earlier, and not have
been so blinded with my own sorrow! How very deeply you must have
suffered, dear, with no one to comfort the bereaved mother-heart. As I
now look over the past I cannot think how ever I got to think that
your nature was shallow, and that your affection for our boy was not
deep and true. Ah, how much easier it would have been had we borne the
sorrow together, instead of suffering alone; and it was my fault that
we did not! Grace, I need your pardon to-night far more than ever you
needed my help and sympathy; and I know, now, how great that was."

He held out his arms pleadingly towards her: "Grace, try and forgive
me!"

If he had humiliated her in any other way than by telling her he